We might often hear about these entrepreneurs that are able to make a lot of money form setting up their own business. It can be really easy for us to them think that this will be something that will work for us and that we will make a lot of money from as well. However, this is not something we should move into lightly as there are sadly a lot of people who start up businesses and do not even last a year. So, make sure you are well prepared first.
It is hard work
It is worth being prepared for the fact that it will be hard work. It is easy to think that it will not be because we hear about people who come up with a successful business idea and then are able to sell their companies to make lots of money. We do not hear about how hard they worked to get to that position first. It is likely that you will be working very long hours every day of the week for a long time to get things going. You will need to start by doing a lot of things yourself because you will not have a big team of helpers or if you do have help, you will need to teach or train people to your way of thinking.
You will probably need to learn a lot
Running a business means learning lots of new things. This can be fun and exciting but it is wise to try to learn as many things as you can before you start. You will need to learn about how to do accounts so that you can keep a close eye on your income and expenditure to make sure that you are doing the right thing. Many people pay an accountant or bookkeeper to do this but then as it is only reviewed yearly they may have no idea as to whether they are making much money or not or whether they are overspending in certain areas. You will also need to learn about marketing so that you can make sure that your goods and services are purchased. You will need to know how to use the internet to publicise your business too, probably social media as well as a website. You may need someone to design the site for you but you will need to keep updating it so that you attract new business and visitors.
You may not be able to pay yourself
It is worth being aware that you may not be able to afford to pay yourself any money when you first start out. You will need to pay for all sorts of things and therefore may need to plough all the money you make back into the business. For example, you may need to buy stock, hire premises, pay staff, hire equipment as well as pay insurance, tax, utilities, domains, to name but a few things. It is well worth working out everything you will need to pay for to start with so that you can work out how much you will need to pay out each month to cover those costs. From that you will be able to work out how many items you will need to sell to cover the costs and how many more you would need to sell to give yourself an income. This is a useful thing to do before you set up as it will allow you to think about whether your business idea is realistic as you can work out whether you will be able to sell your items for enough money to be able to make enough money from them to cover your costs which includes everything that you need to pay for. If there is not enough for this then you will need a different plan and if there is enough for this you are then in the position to work out whether you have enough left to give yourself a decent income as well.
